Avicenna(Abu-Ali Sina or Ebne Sina)

Avicenna

Arabic IBN SINA,
in full ABU `ALI AL-HUSAYN IBN 'ABD ALLAH
IBN SINA (b. 980, Bukhara, Iran--d. 1037, Hamadan),
Iranian physician, the most famous and influential of the philosopher-scientists
of Islam. He was particularly noted for his contributions
in the fields of Aristotelian philosophy and medicine.
He composed the Kitab ash-shifa` ("Book of Healing"),
a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and the Canon
of Medicine, which is among the most famous books in the
history of medicine.

Early years

Avicenna, an ethnic Persian who spent
his whole life in the eastern and central regions of Iran, received
his earliest education in Bukhara under the direction of his
father. Since the house of his father was a meeting place for
learned men, from his earliest childhood Avicenna was able to
profit from the company of the outstanding masters of his day.
A precocious child with an exceptional memory that he retained
throughout his life, he had memorized the Qur`an and
much Arabic poetry by the age of 10. Thereafter, he studied
logic and metaphysics under teachers whom he soon outgrew and
then spent the few years until he reached the age of 18 in his
own self-education. He read avidly and mastered Islamic
law, then medicine, and finally metaphysics. Particularly helpful
in his intellectual development was his gaining access to the
rich royal library of the Samanids--the first
great native dynasty that arose in Iran after the Arab conquest--as
the result of his successful cure of the Samanid
prince, Nuh ibn Mansur. By the time
he was 21 he was accomplished in all branches of formal learning
and had already gained a wide reputation as an outstanding physician.
His services were also sought as an administrator, and for a
while he even entered government service as a clerk.

But suddenly the whole pattern of his life changed. His father
died; the Samanid house was defeated by Mahmud
of Ghazna, the Turkish leader and legendary hero who established
Ghaznavid rule in Khorasan (northeastern Iran
and modern western Afghanistan); and Avicenna began a period
of wandering and turmoil, which was to last to the end of his
life with the exception of a few unusual intervals of tranquillity.
Destiny had plunged Avicenna into one of the tumultuous periods
of Iranian history, when new Turkish elements were replacing
Iranian domination in Central Asia and local Iranian dynasties
were trying to gain political independence from the 'Abbasid
caliphate in Baghdad (in modern Iraq). But the power of concentration
and the intellectual prowess of Avicenna was such that he was
able to continue his intellectual work with remarkable consistency
and continuity and was not at all influenced by the outward
disturbances.

Avicenna wandered for a while in different cities of Khorasan
and then left for the court of the Buyid princes, who
were ruling over central Iran, first going to Rayy (near modern
Tehran) and then to Qazvin, where as usual he
made his livelihood as a physician. But in these cities also
he found neither sufficient social and economic support nor
the necessary peace and calm to continue his work. He went,
therefore, to Hamadan in west-central Iran, where Shams ad-Dawlah, another
Buyid prince, was ruling. This journey marked the beginning
of a new phase in Avicenna's life. He became court physician
and enjoyed the favour of the ruler to the extent that twice
he was appointed vizier. As was the order of the day, he also
suffered political reactions and intrigues against him and was
forced into hiding for some time; at one time he was even imprisoned.

Writings

This was the period when he began his
two most famous works. Kitab ash-shifa`
is probably the largest work of its kind ever written by one
man. It treats of logic, the natural sciences, including psychology,
the quadrivium (geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and
music), and metaphysics, but there is no real exposition of
ethics or of politics. His thought in this work owes a great
deal to Aristotle but also to other Greek influences
and to Neoplatonism. His system rests on the conception
of God as the necessary existent: in God alone essence, what
he is, and existence, that he is, coincide. There is a gradual
multiplication of beings through a timeless emanation from God
as a result of his self-knowledge. The Canon of Medicine
(al-Qanun fi at-tibb) is the most famous single book
in the history of medicine in both East
and West. It is a systematic encyclopaedia based for the most
part on the achievements of Greek physicians of the Roman imperial
age and on other Arabic works and, to a lesser extent, on his
own experience (his own clinical notes were lost during his
journeys). Occupied during the day with his duties at court
as both physician and administrator, Avicenna spent almost every
night with his students composing these and other works and
carrying out general philosophical and scientific discussions
related to them. These sessions were often combined with musical
performances and gaiety and lasted until late hours of the night.
Even in hiding and in prison he continued to write. The great
physical strength of Avicenna enabled him to carry out a program
that would have been unimaginable for a person of a feebler
constitution.

The last phase of Avicenna's life began with his move to Isfahan
(about 250 miles south of Tehran). In 1022 Shams ad-Dawlah
died, and Avicenna, after a period of difficulty that included
imprisonment, fled to Isfahan with a small entourage. In Isfahan,
Avicenna was to spend the last 14 years of his life in relative
peace. He was esteemed highly by 'Ala` ad-Dawlah,
the ruler, and his court. Here he finished the two major works
he began in Hamadan and wrote most of his nearly 200 treatises;
he also composed the first work on Aristotelian philosophy in
the Persian language and the masterly summary of his "Book of
Healing" called Kitab an-najat ("Book of Salvation"),
written partly during the military campaigns in which he had
to accompany 'Ala` ad-Dawlah to the field of battle.
During this time he composed his last major philosophical opus
and the most "personal" testament of his thought, Kitab al-isharat wa
at-tanbihat ("Book of Directives and Remarks"). In this
work he described the mystic's spiritual journey from the beginnings
of faith to the final stage of direct and uninterrupted vision
of God. Also in Isfahan, when an authority on Arabic philology
criticized him for his lack of mastery in the subject, he spent
three years studying it and composed a vast work called Lisan
al-'arab ("The Arabic Language"), which remained in rough
draft until his death. Accompanying 'Ala` ad-Dawlah on
a campaign, Avicenna fell ill and, despite his attempts to treat
himself, died from colic and from exhaustion.

Besides fulfilling the role of the master of the Muslim Aristotelians,
Avicenna also sought in later life to found an "Oriental philosophy"
(al-hikmat al-mashriqiyah). Most of his works directly
concerning this have been lost, but enough remains in some of
his other works to give an indication of the direction he was
following. He took the first steps upon a path toward mystical
theosophy that marked the direction that Islamic philosophy
was to follow in the future, especially in Persia and the other
eastern lands of Islam.

Avicenna's influence

In the Western world, Avicenna's influence
was felt, though no distinct school of "Latin Avicennism" can
be discerned as can with Averroës, the great Spanish-Arabic
philosopher. Avicenna's "Book of Healing" was translated partially
into Latin in the 12th century, and the complete Canon
appeared in the same century. These translations and others
spread the thought of Avicenna far and wide in the West. His
thought, blended with that of St. Augustine, the Christian philosopher
and theologian, was a basic ingredient in the thought of many
of the medieval Scholastics, especially
in the Franciscan schools. In medicine the Canon became
the medical authority for several centuries, and Avicenna
enjoyed an undisputed place of honour equalled only by the early
Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen. In the East his dominating
influence in medicine, philosophy, and theology has lasted over
the ages and is still alive within the circles of Islamic
thought.